Ang Kape Ni LaTtEX

The other day I almost hit another pedestrian.

This time I was driving along Libertad street right next to the Pasay City Public Market. A woman all of a sudden jumped (more like hurled herself) right in front of the pick-up truck I was driving. Good thing I was able to stop in time. I honked the car horn in frustration, but my brain’s better side kicked in and then I realized what had just happened.

The woman was wearing a headscarf, indicating that she was Muslim. A man walked right up behind her and was going to brush her aside. The problem was that the man was carrying a newly slaughtered pig on his back, its stomach still quite open and still spilling some gunk.

As it is prohibited in Islam to even touch a pig, much less to have its innards all over you, the woman probably thought she’d be better off being hit by a car than being splattered with dead pig.

I don’t really mind if she prefers that.

Just as long as it’s not the car I’m driving that she lets herself get hit with.